21 minutes ago, watson71 said:

Here is an AW episode from September 1982 featuring Alma terrorizing Blaine that was just posted to YouTube.

 

 

Such a gem. Thank you! 

42 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Thank you @watson71 ! How timely, not only for the superb Franz, but I also see Ilsa, after @Paul Raven and @Xanthe talking about her and Gwyda DonHowe.

Geez, I didn't realize she actually did dress in that full body Raggedy Ann costume. No wonder some fans were disturbed. I wonder if Jacker or whoever wrote this saw the Jingles the Clown story on Somerset. 

@vetsoapfan this is another that may interest you.                                                 

Wow, what a treat! Thanks for sharing. I always wondered if she drew inspiration from the jingles the clown story to. Definitely some parallels there. Henry Slaser took over head writing Somerset from Robert Cenedella, who was co-head writer with Jacker at AW in the beginning of 82, perhaps a suggestion from him. 

Edited November 15Nov 15 by cody_1990

Just now, cody_1990 said:

Wow, what a treat! Thanks for sharing. I always wondered if she drew inspiration from the jingles the clown story to. Definitely some parallels there. Henry Slaser took over head writing Somerset from Robert Cenedella, who was co-head writer with Jacker at AW during the beginning of the 82, perhaps a suggestion from him. 

Thanks. I didn't realize Cenedella was back. I can see where he may have wanted to go back to basics. Beyond Jingles, the story of the servant trying to ruin the heroine was also a story he did with Pat and Rue McLanahan.

On 11/15/2025 at 5:23 PM, DRW50 said:

Geez, I didn't realize she actually did dress in that full body Raggedy Ann costume. No wonder some fans were disturbed. I wonder if Jacker or whoever wrote this saw the Jingles the Clown story on Somerset. 

Alma dressed up as the doll was very memorable. I thought as well that there was some kind of clown element in Quinn's stalker storyline the following year but I don't seem to find any reference to it -- have I misremembered?

I was thinking about Alma recently because Lois Smith who played her friend Ella Fitz was on an episode of Elsbeth a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for pointing out Ilsa.

Kyra Sedgwick as Julia! I never realised at the time that she/Julia was so young, I assumed she was over twenty at least.

thanks @watson71 for sharing the episode.

Stuff of nightmares. I would love to be able to see the entire storyline.

On 11/13/2025 at 12:13 PM, j swift said:

 

Sounds like Carol was not fond of Connie Ford.

3 minutes ago, denzo30 said:

Sounds like Carol was not fond of Connie Ford.

For those of us who can't listen to an hour and a half interview -- can you tell us what Carol said about Connie Ford?    Thank you.   

Thanks, @DRW50.

The Jingles the Clown story on Somerset, as penned by the great Henry Slesar, was great.

I wish you could have seen it. It tapped into many people's very real fear of clowns.

On 11/17/2025 at 7:36 PM, Tisy-Lish said:

For those of us who can't listen to an hour and a half interview -- can you tell us what Carol said about Connie Ford?    Thank you.   

I have not found the time to listen to the whole thing myself, but I was tinkering with the Youtube AI helpbot thing (which in the app I found by swiping right on the Comments). The high level summary didn't point to it but it let me ask what she had said about Constance Ford and although its paraphrase was inaccurate it did point me to the mention about 52 minutes in.

The only thing she said in relation to Ford that could be construed as negative was that when the interviewer asked what she had thought of her she started with "you devil!" and where she had gushed about how lovely she found practically everyone else, she just said that she hadn't really known Connie well and had never sat and talked with her.

She also mentioned earlier that originally she had been very friendly with Jacqueline Courtney but they had later fallen out.

Edited Wednesday at 03:50 AM5 days by Xanthe
Sequence of tenses

38 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

I have not found the time to listen to the whole thing myself, but I was tinkering with the Youtube AI helpbot thing (which in the app I found by swiping right on the Comments). The high level summary didn't point to it but it let me ask what she had said about Constance Ford and although its paraphrase was inaccurate it did point me to the mention about 52 minutes in.

The only thing she said in relation to Ford that could be construed as negative was that when the interviewer asked what she had thought of her she started with "you devil!" and where she had gushed about how lovely she found practically everyone else, she just said that she hadn't really known Connie well and had never sat and talked with her.

She also mentioned earlier that originally she had been very friendly with Jacqueline Courtney but they had later fallen out.

Thank you for the information.  I did listen to the entire interview with Miss Roux -- way back when it was first released.  But I am unable to recall her mentioning Connie Ford, and don't have time nor effort to listen to the entire thing again, just for one small morsel. So again, thanks for responding.   

I do recall Roux sounded extremely fragile and perhaps a bit wounded in the interview. I almost felt guilty for even listening to it.  So perhaps that has some influence on my reluctance to listen to it again.  She seemed troubled, to say the least.   

In watching recent 1991 episodes, I was just thinking how much was/will be lost shortly and how it really ruined the show for me: Anna Holbrook, Dack Rambo, Cali Timmins, Allison Hossack, Anne Heche, etc. The Taylor Benson story ended which I really liked because I thought Christine Andreas was fantastic. I would have found a way to keep her on as an antagonist. I also liked Joy Bell as Caroline, but they never did much with her.

I don't remember Kathleen's first tenure on AW, but her 1991 return just doesn't work for me because the writers can't decide who Kathleen is and they are writing Cass as an unfeeling idiot. Although, they did bring back Mary, MJ and Vince very briefly and I wanted more of them. I adore(d) those performers.

2 hours ago, chrisml said:

I don't remember Kathleen's first tenure on AW, but her 1991 return just doesn't work for me because the writers can't decide who Kathleen is and they are writing Cass as an unfeeling idiot. Although, they did bring back Mary, MJ and Vince very briefly and I wanted more of them. I adore(d) those performers.

I was watching during Julie Osburn's first tenure as Kathleen and I liked her with absolutely everyone -- the McKinnons (especially MJ, then played by Kathleen Layman) and with Cass/Felicia/Wallingford. I wasn't able to watch as consistently during her return but I was struck by how comfortable it felt to see her and Steve Schnetzer together even though I also really liked Cass with Frankie.

In the episode below Ben is leaving and his friends and family (including the original Vince) are seeing him off. Kathleen interacts with an assortment of people, including a confrontation with Donna.

@Xanthe thank you for sending me that episode. Leaving aside the Kathleen of it all, who was Ben? I assume he played little part in t he storylines because I don't remember hearing about him. He seemed attractive enough. AW never seemed to know what to do with handsome men on the show of that age group (Hank Cheyne is a prime example of that).

From what little I've seen, I liked Julie Osburn, and I especially enjoyed her interactions with her family (both MJs) and I wish we had gotten more of that on her return. I think that's what I missed. She was pretty much on an island. Why not bring back Cecile for Kathleen's return to tie it back to history? It felt as if Swajeski came up with a "Kathleen is alive!" storyline, but didn't have a plan beyond that. Connecting her to Jake and Carl on her return also did not work for me.

I'm up to the points where Dr. Benson will be exiting full time. Poor Dr. Benson. Christine Andreas was such a powerhouse. I wish Swajeski had not gone the predictable "the shrink is the real psycho" storyline because Andreas was that good.